While exploring the Toy Fair, we ran into our old friends from Mimoco! They’ve come a long way since we first started posting about them in 2005! From a variety of artist Mimobots series, licensed characters, hoodies, and more… they have now veered into Mimomicros! These are new characters that have a flip out USB plug and you can put in any sized microSD card to use them as usb keys… or just use them to transfer info from phones/cameras/etc that use microSDs. Take a peek at the fun Mimoco toy fair booth (How fun are the turntable/record like displays you can really spin? Sadly no music plays though!) as well as close ups of the new Mimomicros on the next page!

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While i’ve seldom had the traditional “family vacation” as a kid ~ talking to NOTlabs director, Shawn, i found out that he knows HomeAway well! Apparently his mom’s been booking everything from houses in the Rockies, French Quarter in New Orleans, and Utah Ski trips on the site ~ and they often associate family vacations with insane jigsaw puzzles and toys… so when HomeAway asked us to share some awesomeness around family travel… adventures at the NY International Toy Fair seemed like a perfect fit! There were SO many random toys in every genre you can imagine, so to narrow it down, here’s a selection of our favorites that are perfect to keep kids (both actually young and young at heart) occupied in the car/plane en route or curled up by the fireplace/dining table when just hanging out! Ready to see some crazy puzzles, fun magnetic building toys, turtles, mazes, paper animals, electronic experiments and more? To the next page!

Chocolate margaritas, Domo-Kun heart cookies, and a goat cheese burger are all part of this week’s roundup from Tasteologie and Liqurious. To find out more about each delectable post, click on its individual image.

Happy Valentine’s Day! For some VDay inspiration, we popped in to Wieden + Kennedy NY to see the creativity and inspiration behind the ads we all love. So much creative energy and playfulness throughout the office! I love the staircase in the Wieden + Kennedy NY office! (So naturally the adorable animal caricatures of everyone in the office a few years back became the main picture!) It’s fun to get a peek behind the scenes of everything from Sportscenter ad spots in the making to crazy tech being schemed… giant Nike shoes looking for decorations… post it note maps of the US… color sorted bookshelves… and an amazing 3 floors of a huge Tribecca building… only two of which are filled with people and the third is used for everything from photoshoots to castings to artist experiments and shopping pop ups! There’s even a “red vein” flowing through each floor sometimes taking the form of couches, other times filing cabinets and meeting spots… and then there’s the adorably sweet Valentine’s present they gifted us too! Take a peek inside the world of W+K NY on the next page!

Just visited with CW&T (Che-Wei Wang and Taylor Levy) who amongst many awesome projects are responsible for one of the most funded Kickstarter design projects… Pen Type-A. Looking to raise $2,500, they ended up with over $280,000… and 4000+ backers (including us!)… and from making a smaller batch of pens, they were suddenly faced with the daunting task of making a few thousand! Beyond the beautiful design and craftsmanship of this solid steel housing for the plastic Hi-Tec-C pen cartridges… it has been incredible to follow the hardships and exciting moments over the last 6 months since they got funded, and even more exciting to finally get our hands on the actual pen! (Spoiler: it feels incredible!) So take a peek at the details and unboxing of one from the first batches of CW&T Pen Type-A on the next page!

p.s.
If you find yourself with one in person, you must pull the pen from casing quickly. It’s a great sound.

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Breathtaking. Year after year, Stockholm Design Week seems to get better and better ~ and there’s just something calmingly minimalist, playful, and beautiful about the new designs that emerge… the mix of black, whites, and woods with refreshing colors and clean lines makes me want to update my house and NOTlabs! So, while we weren’t able to make it there in person this year, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite designs from the event on the next page… take a peek at the lamps, chairs, tables and more on the next page!

Underwater dogs, a sci-fi take on art history and the world’s largest dodgeball game are all part of this week’s roundup from NOTCOT.org. To find out more about each post click on its individual image.

Happy (day before) Valentine’s Day!!! Our friend’s at Knoll have generously teamed up with us to giveaway a pair of Red Generation by Knoll chairs. Dubbed the “first chair that lets you sit how you want” ~ its flexibility allows you to sit in a variety of unexpected ways… perfect for a versatile office space ~ or home office! You can check out the unboxing of the Generation from last summer here.

For a chance to win this pair of Red Generation by Knoll chairs for you and your loved one ~ tweet @NOTCOT with how you work with the ones you love and #LoveGeneration ~ and follow @knoll_inc and @NOTCOT so we can DM the winner! Please note that for this giveaway only US based winners will be eligible, and we will contact the winner via twitter on Feb 15th!

This week’s roundup from NotVentures is full of travel inspiration whether you’re off to Antarctica, the Musandam peninsula or Harbour Island. To find out more about each destination, click on its individual image.

The iconic Moo “business” cards which can easily feature your whole Flickr/photo library have taken it to the next level… now you can get Moo Luxe Business Cards! What makes them so luxe? Besides the awesome new packaging with the magnetic box? Mohawk Superfine paper with Moo Quadplex technology to make a card of triple thickness and weight (vs most ordinary cards) with a rich seam of color within the layers of paper… Take a look at the unboxing of the set they sent over (which i quickly made a variation of my old shorter cards…) on the next page!

IKEA has expanded their Solvinden spring/summer collection of solar lights (can you believe we’ve been writing about these since 2009?!?!) to now include not only solar but WIND powered lighting!!! It’s a fun idea ~ and designer, David Wahl, tells us more about them (and shows them in action) in the video on the next page! These were apparently “Inspired by the playfulness and movement of amusement park lamps” and “The designers and product developers worked closely with the supplier - even driving around holding a prototype out the window - to test the wind-power until everything worked.” Fun! Can’t wait to try these out in person… take a peek at the video and more pics on the next page!